may your days be merry and bright...

As you find rest and comfort this holiday season, I pray that each soul is illuminated with the knowledge of the immense gift that was given so many years ago. It is astounding to me that through a small child, adoption into the family of God, into His grace and acceptance, and ultimately, eternity with Him was offered. As you light the lights, open gifts, and feast heartily, let the knowledge of such a gift consume and fill your heart.

May your days be merry and bright...filled with the light of the One who has come and will return soon.

Happy Birthday, Jesus.

my birthday (and other things)

Feeling a bit odd about turning 24...I feel like 24 is officially past college age and into young adult. It is so close to that quarter century mark too...

don't get me wrong, I know I am young and I feel young...I just feel as if I may be transitioning into a new age range and it's odd.

BTW, my birthday is Sunday, the 20th. My family has learned to do such a good job of separating this event from Christmas events, down to birthday balloon wrapping paper. I feel so celebrated. I mean, I am competing with the Savior's birthday so it can be hard.

Another thing, I am super pumped about seeing Rodarte's collection for Target. They are really cool designers and I find it neat that their lines hit stores on my birthday. Thank you, Style Rookie for informing me about this design.

Here are some peeks at the line: (also, this model is not very appealing to me but, whatever)

Lace tights, 12 dolla make you holla!


a rib cage, cooooooool...aaaand I could never pull it off but me like-y!

Ok, I am obsessed with this pleated tulle skirt. Genius.

totally tavi

please commence scraping yourself off the floor since i'm sure you all have fainted over the shock of my posting 3 times in 4 days. this is partly due to an easy work week and partly due to my determination to change my wicked non-blogging ways.

So I was in the library with a student yesterday and was flipping through a copy of Teen Vogue (hold your mocking please, i work in a high school, my options were limited. besides, i kind of liked it.) and i stumbled upon this impish little thing:

ladies and gentlemen (but probably just ladies), please meet Miss Tavi Gevinson.

she is a 13-year-old fashion blogger. no joke. her about me reads as follows:

Tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats. Scatters black petals on Rei Kawakubo's doorsteps and serenades her in rap. I have no where near 4 million readers. Rather cynical and cute as a drained rat. In a sewer. Farting. And spitting out guts.

this precocious little creature is FABULOUS. maybe i'm really behind and you all already have discovered her, but maybe i have stumbled onto her FIRST! i wouldn't say i LOVE her style but the fact that she HAS style is astounding. i mean i wouldn't really call my hodge-podge of a closet style, but more a collection of things i like and can afford.

Her posts are as quirky, creative, and genius as her style is. The fact that this girl knows Rodarte, Prada, and Alexander Wang and can flippantly say "I'm not really a YSL girl"...Tavi, I LOVE you!

She is inspirational, you should all go visit her blog (linked above). So much so, she was invited to NY Fashion Week and several BIG name designers have custom created little diddies just for her. It is encouraging to know that there is such young and fresh inspiration out there...and that she hasn't been stifled or made to feel insignificant. It really exemplifies the power of the internet and blogging in our world today. So all you inspirational bloggers out there, keep blogging, someone will find you someday!

acorn epidemic

2 posts in 2 days....shocked???? I know, me too!!!!!!!!

Anyway, we seem to be having a bit of a problem with these little guys.

The problem is, Judge (our dog) is obsessed with them. EATING them. And for some reason, this infuriates me. Mainly because he turns into a psychotic creature during our walks. Now, it is important to note that Judge is a world-class leash-puller. But we have been working on breaking this bad habit. Usually, we let him off-leash to run around and throw the ball for a few minutes and commence with our walk. But then the acorns started dropping to the ground. So the leash-pulling reared its ugly head once again.

Judge will pull, crane his neck, and twist every which way just for a nibble of these seemingly tasty goodies. He will ignore my splendid pitching skills and let the ball fly past him as he roots around in the grass for a scrumptious morsel. So now, instead of keeping him from pulling towards humans and animals, I have to keep him from pulling towards the acorns.

And all this would be fine if he digested them. But, since we have a "clean up after your pet" policy at the apartment complex, I assure you, these little treats are NOT digestible.

Gross!

in the mood...

before i start...just want to say...my blogging has sucked for the last month. i had this wonderful idea that i wanted to make my blog posts more frequent and inspirational and all that. yeah. anyway.

in reference to the title of this post. this morning i was very thankful for Crossfit. i had one of those mornings where i did NOT want to get out of bed, did NOT want to work out, was hating myself and Tommy for prioritizing fitness to the point that we wouldn't just take a random day off. and we can't work out after work today so i HAD to wake up. so after dragging myself out of bed at 5...dragging myself into my asics...dragging myself out the door and in Tommy's truck...dragging myself into the gym...dragging through a 20 minute warmup of lightweight squats, pushups, pullups, back extensions, and stretching...I was thankful for Crossfit.

Because the workout today took me 7min26sec.

it was "Fran"
21-15-9 (reps of the following)
25lb Thrusters
pullups (assisted for me still)

It is days like today when i was grateful i didn't have to move my body through an hour long run. but knowing the torture would be over soon...was motivation enough. sometimes i miss running. and then i have mornings like this morning.

well, see you kids later, maybe tomorrow, maybe next month. anywho, who's excited for this?

being "fit"

I realize I haven't been blogging about my current fitness regimen which is kind of a large part of my life. Every morning we wake at 5 to do the prescribed workout, which means every NIGHT we are lights out at 10pm. On the occasion that we might get in bed a little late sometimes we will sleep in which means that we work out after work, and then again in about 11 hours the next morning. Thus, incentive to not sleep in. Not only this, we have adjusted our diet to what is affectionately (or unaffectionately, if someone beside me has cake) known as Paleo/Zone. For more info on this visit http://www.zonediet.com/ or http://www.paleodiet.com/.

I can honestly say that I am a true believer in the importance of nutrition to athletic performance or really performance in general. We have seen increases in energy, strength, stamina, intensity, speed, etc. Decreases in inflammation (bloating), blockage (of the digestive sort), fatigue, tired-ness.

I decided to commit to Crossfit (http://www.crossfit.com/) and the nutrition plan because I had a fitness assessment at LifeTime and was disappointed by my numbers (VO2 max, % body fat) considering my previous running habits and commitment to "healthy" food. So I figured I would give Crossfit a go and really start eating "clean" and see if it led to improvements.

Crossfit is really cool. Now I know alot of girls out there shy away from weight-training, ESPECIALLY heavy weight-training for fear of "bulking up". But (if you follow the nutrition plan) it won't happen! That is such a myth. Yes you will bulk if you are consuming more calories than you are spending and if those calories are lots and lots of simple glucose (ie bread, pasta, sugar, potatoes). But girls just aren't physiologically designed to be bulky.

So the prescription for world class fitness in 100 words?

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

Now this program is hard to get used to...it requires MAJOR practice and training to practice lifts correctly. I would NEVER encourage someone to do heavy lifts without proper study or instruction. Crossfit posts great videos that teach these things and both Tommy and I have watched and watched and practiced and practiced to make sure we are doing things safely. We don't do "snatches" simply because they are a very complicated and dangerous lift that we have never been formally trained on. We don't go to a Crossfit gym so we can't practice much of the gymnastics stuff as easy in Lifetime.

What is also cool is that it is totally scalable to any fitness level. Can't do dips? Cool, do them on the bench. Can't do a pull up? Cool, do them assisted. (My goal is to get my first unassisted pull up by Christmas!). The goal isn't "you have to do this much weight," the goal is "do it intensely." If it isn't intense, it isn't Crossfit.

So I (hopefully) will start blogging a little more about this, posting Zone/Paleo recipes, writing about PRs (personal records), etc. Until then....
some of Crossfit's Elite....

Please notice the blood running down Carey Kepler's arm...

um, someone please buy me this shirt.

seriously, this is just fabulous.